Back in the day, you’d have to couch same-sex romance with pseudonyms such as “idealized love” or whatnot. It’s not really Jackson’s fault that Frodo and Sam appear to be in a soulmate-type romantic relationship it’s Tolkien’s, and it’s also due to the changing times.
Peter Jackson seemed to have taken this theme of intense love and turned it into something that could be seen as a sweeping romantic epic, if there wasn’t tons of fighting and killing in the way. And also, the Victorian idea of idealized love is very much one rooted in homoeroticism. If Sam was a woman, there would be no question that the woman was in love.
Sam and frodo full#
What did surprise me was that this particular passage could easily be read as not just homoeroticism, but a full statement of love, including not just an examination of bonds forged between brothers-at-arms, but a true realization of all-encompassing love that involves actual romantic feeling. Tolkien grew up and lived during the early part of the 20th century, participating in the First World War and experienced intense loyalty with his compatriots, it’s not surprising to me that a statement of filial bonding is an overriding theme of the books. The book was written during the ’40s, but even during that time, the lingering Victorian idea of idealized love between same-sex friends was still in existence. Of course, the historical context of this quote has to be examined. He’s like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: “I love him. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. Frodo’s face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiseling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Then as he had kept watch Sam had noticed that at times a light seemed to be shining faintly within but now the light was even clearer and stronger. In the second book, Sam does say he loves Frodo. But when watching Frodo and Sam interact, there always seemed to be a lot more there than just friendship, and that’s not even counting the master-servant relationship. I think most people know what friendship is. I think when arguments start about whether or not Frodo and Sam are gay, one of the things that gets brought up is friendship somehow being “tainted” and twisted into gay fantasy.
How are they queer-coded, you ask? Let me count the ways:ġ) There’s strong friendship, and then there’s loud subtext. It looks like that engagement photo you get that you immediately want to shred to pieces because the couple that’s getting married is that couple, the one always showing PDA when you’re just trying to eat your sandwich or walk to the store or something. That thought process (and perhaps my passive-aggressiveness at PDA and my love-hate relationship with the idea of weddings) led me to create this foolery a couple of years ago:īut in all seriousness, Frodo and Sam are quite queer-coded (whether Sean Astin wants to believe that or not). It’s like the person behind the camera had an agenda. were successful in making Frodo and Sam the hottest couple of 2003, even though they probably never intended for the relationship to be interpreted that way.įirst of all, as a Frodo/Sam geek, I love this picture that was apparently used for press purposes. But if the large amount of fanfiction is anything to go by, along with some forums and the reactions my former classmates had to the scene at the end of Return of the King when it looks like Frodo’s about to kiss Sam before he goes to the Undying Lands, then it would seem that Peter Jackson et al. Yeah, The Lord of the Rings characters Frodo and Sam are queer-coded too, at least, to me, if not to everyone else.
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